ABOUT THIRTY DAYS
I checked once again the cam of the osprey chicks on the nest in Maryland. Another thirty days and they will be in flight. Amazing how quickly they grow and to think that by the middle of September, they must be ready for a southern migration which could take them as far as South America. But I doubt in the first year, such a trip is to be expected. Thanks go to the Atlantic Security Company in Chestertown, MD for putting this thing together. Good people those! Here is the link to the nest.
http://atlanticsecurityinc.com/video-large.htm
The youngsters are the ones with the white fringe to their black, back and wing feathers. They are also noisy, learning how to scream constantly....perhaps mimicking their mother....or presumably for food as they are still too young to fly and catch their own fish. Other than their talons, their eyes are an outstanding feature of this bird. After all they have to be able to see a fish as small as three inches on or just below the water's surface from a hundred yards up, then track it all the way into their talons, and grab it for supper. On the off chance, I saw Daddy bring TWO fish, one in each foot, to the young one night. A rare occurrence I think.
http://atlanticsecurityinc.com/video-large.htm
The youngsters are the ones with the white fringe to their black, back and wing feathers. They are also noisy, learning how to scream constantly....perhaps mimicking their mother....or presumably for food as they are still too young to fly and catch their own fish. Other than their talons, their eyes are an outstanding feature of this bird. After all they have to be able to see a fish as small as three inches on or just below the water's surface from a hundred yards up, then track it all the way into their talons, and grab it for supper. On the off chance, I saw Daddy bring TWO fish, one in each foot, to the young one night. A rare occurrence I think.
Their time will now be spent strengthening their wings. False flying as they flap around the nest but never becoming airborne.
Scream and flap. Scream and flap. Scream and flap!
Sounds like the behavior of certain of the human race.
But then most of them are adults.
Buy September they must be ready to leave. You might, in subsequent years see one of them in the flat marshes around bays close to their birth. They could look to take up residence in the Chesapeake, Delaware, or Barnegat bays.
This bird was photographed in the flat country of the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge in Maryland. The preceding birds were on the Chester River which feeds into the Chesapeake Bay at Love Point.
I miss living on or around the Chesapeake. A lot of the great charm of the Delmarva has been lost with the changing shape and condition of the bay. But fifty years of memories for me have been made in that place. I guess it just boils down to the fact that too many people want to live on or around the water. I read somewhere that over 90% of the people in this country live within five miles of some body of water. That just seems to me to be an extraordinary statistic, but they do pay college students to study such things, and upon which to write masters or doctorates.
I feel a period of old man day dreaming of the old times coming on. Brace yourselves for the next few entries. It could get rather maudlin!
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